


Alright in Time

by Glacecakes



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sibling Love, Team Awesome (Disney: Tangled), Varian Gets Therapy, Varian Has Issues (Disney), Varian Needs a Hug (Disney)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 16:48:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28728381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glacecakes/pseuds/Glacecakes
Summary: After the battle of Corona, everyone seems to be settling down pretty easily no worse for wear. Except Varian. Thankfully, he has his big siblings to look out for him.Set after vaguenotion's Like Blood From a Stone.
Relationships: Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider & Varian, Rapunzel & Varian (Disney)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 63





	Alright in Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vaguenotion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaguenotion/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Like Blood From A Stone](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22565464) by [vaguenotion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaguenotion/pseuds/vaguenotion). 



> Weeeeeee I wrote this in one sitting because I had the idea and went feral   
> This is for vaguenotion, who is a brilliant author and inspired me to start writing again, so massive thank you to them! I've had it in my head for a while that after LBFAS Varian has some pretty big PTSD (I mean can you blame him), especially involving coils and vines. And then he gets therapy and he's all gucci until TBAA

It’s so strange to think that his tormentor (or at least one of them) was gone.

After she nearly killed him  _ again _ , he felt like he could sleep for a hundred years. At least this time Varian wasn’t the only one. Zhan Tiri had done a number on everyone. From Rapunzel, who had wielded the eclipse stone and saved them all, to the Brotherhood, mind controlled and powerless, to Eugene, who got socked in the face by said mind controlled Brotherhood. After the day, no one wanted to start cleaning or celebrating. They all just wanted to  _ rest _ . 

Well. Mostly everyone. 

Because as much as Varian  _ wanted  _ to sleep, he just couldn’t. 

Everytime he closed his eyes… he was back with  _ her _ . She’d cackle with glee, taunting him, did he really think he was safe, was free? No, she knew what he was capable of, and she’d never let him go. The great tree’s maw would swallow him whole, vines twisting and crushing his limbs, stringing him up with his arms apart and legs tied together,  _ a noose around his neck– _

Yea. He wasn’t going to sleep anytime soon. 

Crackled debris sometimes rained from the ceiling above his head as he trailed the castle halls. It looked more like a ghost of its former self, even at night there were guards scurrying about. He would know. It was impossible to get more than an hour's sleep in the dungeons when maids and guards were always flitting about above you. But tonight, not a single guard was on duty. Moonlight filters in through shattered glass, bouncing off his paled freckles. He’d only had a little bit of time to recover before all this went down; he’d only gotten out of his wheelchair a month ago, and the all clear from doctors only came two weeks ago. All of that meant he was more hobbling than walking around. 

Finally he stepped out into the castle courtyard and heaved a breath of fresh air. It was like a balm to his lungs, weak from coughing up his soul earlier. That decay incantation was nasty. 

No sooner had he rested his palms on the balcony’s ledge, does he hear a voice. 

“I swear, if that tiny terror is back I’m going to cut off one of her horns and wear it as a–” Eugene’s snarky, bitter tone cut off abruptly when he walked onto the dias. His shoulders slumped in relief. “Oh. There you are.” 

Varian grinned sheepishly. In hindsight, maybe he should’ve left a note. His family was overprotective to a fault, after all. He was half surprised his dad wasn’t out here too, but then again, he needed sleep more than anyone else. “Hi. Yea, I’m still here. No Zhan Tiri. Sorry to disappoint.” 

The captain laughed, high and bright. “I don’t think anyone is complaining.” He walked over to wrap him in a gentle hug, careful of aching muscles. The healing incantation may have saved them all, but that had been hours ago. And despite the aforementioned desire to sleep,  _ some _ cleaning had to be done before they could. No one wanted to wake up to a collapsed roof or flaming building. 

“How are you holding up?” He asked.

Varian let out a puff of air, separating from the hug to get a good look at his brother. “I should be asking you that.” He looks better than before, after all black eye had been healed, but his harried expression was more than enough to show what he had gone through… gone through alone, because of Varian’s failures. 

His smile fades. “I’m sorry,” he offers. “For um, for the machine. For getting everyone stuck in the other dimension and, yknow, leaving you alone.” 

Eugene blinks a few times, as if fighting off sleep or, more likely, confusion. He cocked his head to the side. For a moment, he doesn't speak, looking Varian up and down, as if expecting something Varian to suddenly laugh it off and change the subject.

“Why are you sorry?” He asked. 

Varian faltered. Why? There’s a million reasons! His mind reeled with things he could’ve done, should’ve done. He’d spent time  _ with _ Zhan Tiri. Out of everyone, he knew best what they were up against. And yet still, she bested him. Again. And he’d needed his friends to bail him out. Again. 

“I just explained,” he tried weakly.

“No, you explained what you’re sorry for, not why,” Eugene corrected, hands crossed. When Varian opens his mouth, he’s cut off. “Zzt! Wrong. The answer is you shouldn’t be.”

“W-huh?”

“So our first plan didn’t work,” The captain shrugged. “Oh well, it worked out in the end! We’re all fine, the squid is calamari, Cassandra’s back. We did it! Go team.” He smirked down at Varian, not in a demeaning way, but rather a big brother kind of way. It looked like he wanted to ruffle Varian’s hair, or wrap him in a headlock. Which one, Varian had no clue. Either way he wasn't going to let him do it.

“Don’t blame yourself for things out of your control, kid. If you do, you’re gonna hold the whole world on your back. And considering how much you already hunch, you don’t need extra back pain.” 

“I changed my mind, I’m reopening the portal and throwing you inside.”

“Oh, I dare you to try!” 

-

He doesn’t see Cassandra off. 

She left sometime around mid afternoon, when Varian finally managed to get some rest. It’s for the best, he thought. Even though she’s on their side again, he wasn’t ready to face her. Maybe when she returns, they’ll have a talk about everything. Maybe then she will apologize for what happened under her nose. He doesn’t blame her, not anymore. But he still can’t look her in the eye without seeing… them. 

They never recaptured Andrew, after all. The thought that the man was out there somewhere sent shivers down Varian’s spine. Every once in a while Varian found himself looking behind his back, checking corners for someone to spring on him. It was stupid, he knew it. But he couldn’t help it. 

“Hi Varian!” Rapunzel called, and said teen jumped a foot in the air. His heart didn’t resume beating until he turned to see who it was at the door to his lab. 

“Hi Rapunzel,” he said, resting his back on the table. “I’m finishing up the prototypes for the water heaters, if you wanna come see?”

She lit up in delight, happily bounding down the steps. Her tiara clinked in place on her head. It was her idea to make Varian the Royal Engineer, a position that didn’t actually exist until she made it so. Nigel had pitched a fit, insisting that not only was Varian a peasant and a traitor, but far too young for such a role. 

Rapunzel had politely reminded him that Varian had stood toe to toe with Zhan Tiri, and was more than capable of implementing his plans safely. 

“Just hand me that wire? It’s connected to the power source so I just gotta make sure the source itself is working with a simple test.” He said, not looking back. This was his fatal flaw. Rapunzel, bless her heart, didn’t mean to, but when she tossed him the wire, it caught on his glove, static causing it to stick to his leg–

_ Vines crushing his windpipe, wrapping his arms and torso in place as a boulder is thrown over his head, ready to end his short life. Another flexing, snapping his leg so cleanly it’s a miracle it didn’t pop out of socket. The vines cocooned around him, muffling his screams, covering his eyes, filling his nose, his ears only able to hear their shuffling. Thorns dug into him, sharp as the obsidian rocks, dark as their master’s eyes, rushing at him and restraining him and killing him– _

He collapsed to the floor, choked screams warbling out of his throat as he desperately tried to kick off the wire. Sparks fizzled, shocking him and causing muscles to contract, which only panicked Varian more.

Rapunzel gasped in horror. She crouched down next to him, arms hovering and unsure what to do. While she knew the ins and outs of alchemy thanks to Varian, engineering and electricity was a whole different playing field. What if she hurt him by mistake? What if she herself got hurt? 

Varian sobbed weakly, and her fears took a backseat. They didn’t matter. What mattered was getting Varian calm. She grabbed a rag from the table and used it to pry off the wire. It crackled in protest as she threw it to the floor, forgotten. “Varian!” She cried, grabbing his face with delicate hands. “Varian, can you hear me?”

“Get it off,” he moaned in protest. “Please, I just want to go home.” His eyes were unseeing, clouded over by fear. 

“It’s off,” she soothed. “It’s off, Varian, I prom– I’m sure of it. I just need you to take a deep breath, ok? In,” she took a breath, coaching him to do the same. 

Bit by bit, Varian’s world refocused. His cheeks burned red when blue eyes met the emerald green of the princess. 

“Hey,” she sighed. She’d repositioned them, so his head rested comfortably on her dress. “How are you feeling?” 

He cracked a weak grin. “Better, thanks.” His body relaxed, and he let out a shaky breath. He’d really hoped to be over this by now. How was everyone else able to move on so easily? His dad had barely even changed, only taking to wearing gloves when in the fields. Everyone else seemed to be on the up, improving every day as the kingdom moved on from the tragedies. So why couldn’t he?

He wanted to scream his heart out. To sob to the world how it wasn’t fair, that everyone else got to celebrate in the happy ending, and yet he laid here, in the dark, surrounded by his fears. But he couldn’t. He didn’t want to. All he wanted was for an answer. “Will it ever get better?”

For a moment, Rapunzel said nothing. Then, she placed a delicate kiss to his forehead. “It’s ok to not be ok.”

“I know that, logically, like, I know I’ve been messed up,” he let out a weak laugh. “But. I don’t want to be messed up. I want to be like the rest of you, I want to embrace our new future.”

“That also means embracing the bad, you know.” The princess gently helped him to his feet. “You’re allowed to be upset. What happened to you… what Zhan Tiri did to you… no one else went through that. Of course it’ll affect you more than others. Of course you’ll need more time to recover. And that’s ok.” She smiled faintly. “What matters is that you have people who care about you, and support you. We’ll always be here to help you when you need it.”

The wheels of his mind, still slow from his panic attack, turned as he processed her statement. 

Slowly but surely, he smiled.

“Yea, ok.”

-

The doctor’s office wasn’t normally imposing, but today it dwarfed him. He gripped the note, his referral, from Rapunzel in his hand so tight the paper nearly crumpled. She’d insisted that he go to the royal doctor as a member of her staff. It felt a little silly, considering how he knew for a fact none of the maids did the same. But he wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. 

His dad stood on one side, and squeezed his shoulder in support. “You going to be alright, son?” He asked, worry creasing his aging brow. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

“No no,” Varian shrugged a little. “I’ve probably needed this for a while now. Now that I’m living in the castle I can’t exactly be untreated. For. Obvious reasons.” He trailed off into awkward laughter, though it did little to soothe his father. 

In all honesty, it was for the best. His weekly nightmares and episodes could hinder his new job, and with Nigel breathing down his back, he really didn’t want to mess it up with something the royal family was offering to help with. 

Eugene would tell him not to think like that and that he could make Nigel piss off, but he wanted to do this the right way. He wanted to get better. He wanted to be better, and join everyone in their happy endings. 

“I’ll be ok,” He said.

He stepped forward. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you again to vaguenotion who let me write this!! I had a lot of fun <3


End file.
